According to Ministry of Commerce data released on Thursday, Pakistan’s trade deficit increased by 97.6% in March, increasing to $2.968 billion from $1.502 billion in the same month last year.
The trade deficit rose by 17.77 percent month over month.
After December 2020, the trade deficit has been expanding. It increased by 23.93 percent to $2.52 billion in February, compared to $2.03 billion the previous month.
Abdul Razak Dawood, Commerce Adviser, took to Twitter to explain the increase in the import bill. He said that in March, imports increased to $5,313 million, owing to higher imports of petroleum, wheat, soybeans, machinery, raw materials & chemicals, mobiles, fertilizers, tyres, and antibiotics and vaccines.
The trade deficit rose by 22.4 percent to $21.241 billion in the first nine months of this year, compared to $17.352 billion in the same timeframe last year. In March 2021, the increase in the trade deficit was primarily driven by higher import growth and lower export growth.
